EKOCENTER: Empowering Community Well-Being Through Social Enterprise

Share:

Copy Page URL to ClipboardPage URL Copied to Clipboard

Today close to 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water, nearly half the world lives on less than $2 a day and a quarter of humanity gets by without electricity. To help address some of these issues and spur economic and social development, Coca-Cola is partnering with public and private sector organizations to bring basic necessities to millions of people through EKOCENTER™, with a vision to empower community well-being through social enterprise.

For more than 125 years, The Coca-Cola Company has been committed to making a positive, lasting difference in the local communities where we operate. Through EKOCENTER, we are striving to continue this commitment. The project will bring necessities to some of the most remote and distressed areas of the world and also empower communities through entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.

What Is EKOCENTER?

EKOCENTER is a modular community market that is run by a local woman entrepreneur and also provides safe water, solar power, Internet access, and more.

Integrating Coca-Cola’s sustainability priorities of well-being, women and water, EKOCENTER focuses on communities that are without access to basic goods and services. It is an “off-the-grid,” modularly designed kiosk that becomes a hub of community activity by providing a place of commerce as well as safe drinking water, solar power and wireless communication. Other functionality that can be added to jump-start community development includes social facilities and entertainment; power generation for charging phones; cooling/refrigeration of vaccines; education opportunities; and much more.

We have over 100 EKOCENTERs in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Vietnam and continue to expand globally.

Many EKOCENTERs are run in collaboration with our partner SOLARKIOSK (www.solarkiosk.eu), a private company based in Berlin, Germany. SOLARKIOSK combines an award-winning design and innovative technology with an inclusive business model to enable economic and social development in off-the-grid communities. Since 2012 SOLARKIOSK has piloted kiosks in remote areas in Ethiopia, Kenya and Botswana. The kiosks are designed by Graft Architects (www.graftlab.com), also from Germany.

Community participation and support are essential to the success of EKOCENTER, which is why we envision EKOCENTER being operated by local female entrepreneurs, complementing our 5by20 initiative, with assistance from technology, development, and financial partners.

How We’re Doing This: The Golden Triangle

Working with business, government, and civil society – what we call the “Golden Triangle” – is key to the long-term success of EKOCENTER. As an old African proverb says ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together,’ by leveraging our collective thinking, experience and resources, together we will create a greater impact.

Here’s a list of our current partners:

Dell

Microsoft

MedShare

TIGO Rwanda

Philips

SOLARKIOSK

Graft

Pentair

Ericsson

Global Water Challenge

Our partners share our commitment to the social enterprise model and are helping us drive social and business impact simultaneously and at scale by contributing their core areas of expertise.

We also have many formal and informal partnerships with the governments and communities where we operate. We seek to partner with other Golden Triangle leaders who share our vision and see the potential of how together we can make a positive impact by empowering communities in need.

“EKOCENTER represents an investment in the future prosperity and progress of some of the most fragile and at-risk communities we serve. Through EKOCENTER we have the ability to change lives by offering access to safe drinking water and other needed resources, all while empowering local entrepreneurs. What started as an aspiration is now becoming a reality as we welcome our partners across the golden triangle of business, government and civil society to scale and improve this innovation.”

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- or no-sugar options to help people moderate their consumption of added sugar. In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our leading brands around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we’re serious about making positive contributions to the world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and continuing to introduce new ones with added benefits. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world.

The fairlife® brand is owned by fairlife, LLC, our joint venture with Select Milk Producers, Inc., and fairlife’s products are distributed by our Company and certain of our bottling partners.